News and Publications

Notes from the Chair: David I. Bernstein, MD

5/12/2017

David I. Bernstein, MD
2017 Chair, ABAI

I am honored and excited to serve as the Chair of ABAI Board of Directors during 2017

The ABAI is very fortunate to have an able group of directors with broad expertise and excellent staff to assist the Board through a period of transition in our Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. The two main functions of the ABAI is to prepare and administer the Certification Examination for graduate fellows and to provide structured programs for the maintenance of certification of our current diplomates.

I’m happy to share several improvements in our MOC program. In response to requests from our diplomates for an alternative to the every 10-year recertification exam for satisfying MOC Part III, the ABAI will launch a new web-based pilot referred to as the Continuous Assessment Pilot program (CAP). The CAP program has been described in detail in a recent article1 published in JACI: In Practice and will provide new opportunities for continuous learning through the review of 10 recent clinically relevant articles every six months selected by ABAI from 8 different topic areas in the field of Allergy and Immunology. The diplomate participating in MOC will answer 30 questions based on the reviewed articles and 10 general knowledge “core” questions every six months. After reading the articles, a diplomate will answer the questions online (within the ABAI Web Portal) at their convenience at any time during the 6-month block. Ten six-month blocks will be offered in each five-year cycle and the diplomate can choose to drop scores or not participate in two of ten six-month blocks. Similar approaches are being adapted by other ABMS boards as a convenient and valuable approach to satisfy MOC Part III requirements for continuous assessment of knowledge. I believe that the new CAP program will provide outstanding educational value, enabling all of us to stay abreast of the latest developments in clinical allergy and immunology.

ABAI is also developing new Part IV performance improvement modules (PIM) to provide a wider array of options tailored to the individual professional activities of our diplomates. Examples include a new Clinical Supervision PIM and a PIM designed for academic allergists engaged in research and/or teaching. We are also working on improving Part II communication modules.

As Chair, I encourage all diplomates participating in MOC to provide their feedback on the CAP program when it is launched in 2018. We have received many comments regarding concerns about the investment in time required to complete the six-month blocks and have responded to these on an individual basis. The ABAI strongly believes that the new CAP system will be very favorably received and embraced by our diplomates, as has been the case with other specialty boards that have adopted this model.